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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27137486">Departure</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SysOpRunner/pseuds/SysOpRunner'>SysOpRunner</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 06:42:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>511</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27137486</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SysOpRunner/pseuds/SysOpRunner</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A very short peek into Victor's decision to come to Japan to coach Yuri.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Departure</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Victor had spent the morning raking his brain for new ideas to surprise and captivate the audiences and impress the judges. Problem was, after all the surprising things he’d done over the years, they were </span>
  <em>
    <span>expecting </span>
  </em>
  <span>to be surprised… and that kind of defied the whole purpose. He sighed with exasperation and scrolled through his phone, trying to find something to distract him. A video popped up, tagged with his name. That happened often enough and he swiped right past it. It was quite common: skaters trying to copy his routines. And that was fine if that’s what they needed to grow and improve. But there it was again, and again. He started watching with a little smirk playing across his face, confident in his mastery. He was intimately familiar with every turn, every jump, every move of the routine. It was </span>
  <em>
    <span>his </span>
  </em>
  <span>creation. But as he watched, the confident smirk slid off his face, leaving him transfixed as if he’s never seen the routine before. And in a way, it was true. He quickly checked the name of the skater before restarting the video. A Japanese competitor, his name vaguely familiar, always appearing somewhere below his on the results rosters.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Victor was watching closely now. There was a softness, almost a hesitation in the skater’s gestures that gave him such understated grace. Victor was transfixed by the way his fingers trailed his hands as if he was running them through the water. His footwork was quite good really, but the appeal was elsewhere. His stance, the energy holding him up was not coming from his legs and supporting him, it seems as if it was… as if it was his </span>
  <em>
    <span>heart</span>
  </em>
  <span>, pulling him up, straight through his chest, lifting his body along. Victor unconsciously pressed his fingers to his lips, fascinated by the performance. The skater lacked speed and the jumps were somewhere between fair and atrocious but the lines of his spins were clean and graceful. It wasn’t easy to tell from the low resolution and tiny screen but Victor has seen enough skaters, both up close and on screen, to grasp it from the merest suggestion: this young man was not performing. He was skating for himself, and that look in his eyes, soft, longing, and vulnerable, that was </span>
  <em>
    <span>love</span>
  </em>
  <span>... </span>
</p><p><span>Before he even realized what he was doing, Victor was off the couch, rushing to pack a suitcase, </span>Makkachin scrambling in his wake. Only once he was on the plane, heading for Japan, did he take the time to look up more about the skater, Yuri Katsuki. Apparently, they’ve been competing together on and off for a while now but he had no clear recollection of ever meeting him. He questioned his rash departure, wondering what he was hoping to accomplish. And then he realized that there was only one reason, only one explanation for his decision: He had to coach Yuri, had to help him develop his technique and confidence to match his love of skating. He had to see for himself how deep that love ran... </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This was a personal detour, trying to see what was it exactly about Yuri's performance that made Victor rush to Japan and offer to coach him.<br/>Let me know if you like it. I'd love to hear any comments you may have.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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